The Adaptive Combat System is a Mini Expansion for Eysenhudt to make battle more adaptive and thus more challenging. The basic thought behind the Adaptive Combat System is: the more power in arms your army – the »Heller Haufen« – is able to mass, the more aware the targets’ defenders will become of your armaments. So they will most likely adapt!
Thus battle against the important fortified towns will become more challenging than ever (and regardless of your actual attack's potential). After you have computed your strength you determine the difficulty-level against which to compete with the help of a rotary dial and a dice roll. Each difficulty-level (the basic copper ~, the silver ~, the gold ~, the palladium ~ and the plutonium level) comes with its own set of Battle Cards and with its own die. So, in the hardest case you've to compete against a D16 with a lessened probability of rolling the lower values (but also, of course, of rolling a total failure). Thus, with increased difficulty the luck-factor (or bad-dice-roll-factor) decreases.
This Mini Expansion is meant to be optional and for all who want to try a new challenge when going into battle.
—description from the designer